"He's one of those musicians who made the music accessible to people who didn't know they liked what they liked, but the musicians picked up on (the complexity of) it, too," Mills said, admiringly.

Mills might have been speaking of his own style. Harris played recondite art music but also had radio hits ("The Theme from 'Exodus'" in the early '60s) and never forgot his soulful, funky roots.

Mills, a native of Toronto who now lives in Columbus, Ohio, is emphasizing the funky side these days. He'll close the Romolo Chocolates Summer Music Series on Saturday with a band he coleads with Columbus organist Tony Monaco, a groove merchant whose hard-swinging style has made friends in Erie.

"He and I have played together since I've been in Columbus, since about 1997," Mills said. "That tenor (and) organ thing is beautiful and fun." That it is, but there is another side to Mills' playing, a poetic and nuanced style that proceeds from one of his musical touchstones, the composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn.

"My father was not a jazz musician, but he made the scene," Mills remembered. "I saw Basie ... all of them. There was an Oscar Peterson concert indoors in July with no air-conditioning where he played for two solid hours. I was so affected by that."

But the musician who made Mills a tenor player was the swing revivalist Scott Hamilton. "I was maybe 12 and my dad took me to George's Spaghetti House to hear (him), and the next morning, I started playing a student horn. I recall trying to be Scott Hamilton that day."

These days, Mills is very much his own man, and Erie jazz lovers who frequented the late, lamented papermoon club will remember him from an appearance with his Fresh Spin band in late 2008.

Guitarist Pete McCann was an occasional visitor there, too, and he will bring his great harmonic awareness and ear for melody to Romolo's along with powerful drummer Cedric Eaton.

These are musicians who know one another well, a family feeling that is a great way to bring the family-friendly Romolo's series to a memorable -- and swinging -- close.